Conventionally known is a technique that supports input operation by users using a speech recognition technique. Speech recognition engines performing speech recognition are broadly divided into a grammar type and a dictation type. The grammar type is a mode that performs speech recognition based on rules (grammar) created in advance, which is characterized in that utterance that does not follow the rules cannot be recognized, although recognition accuracy is easily improved. In addition, expert knowledge about speech recognition is required for the creation of the rules, and there is a drawback in that work for appropriately creating and managing the rules is complicated. The dictation type is a method that successively recognizes arbitrary utterance independent of specific rules, which is characterized in that it is lower in recognition accuracy than the grammar type, although it is high in versatility.
Now consider supporting operation to input item values to slots of form data by the speech recognition technique. The form data in the present specification refers to data with a given format and having one or more slots to which item values are input in correspondence with item names. When input to the form data of a work report by a worker who has performed field work is supported, for example, it is not realistic to expect all users to utter based on rules, and it is considered that the dictation type speech recognition engine is desirably used for the speech recognition of utterance. However, the dictation type speech recognition engine is low in recognition accuracy as described above, and frequently it cannot be determined that any part of a recognition result should be input as any specific slot's item value. Given these circumstances, desirably provided is a new technique that can appropriately determine the item values to be input to the slots of the form data even when the recognition result contains errors.